It is common practice to enclose a circuit breaker within a protective enclosure to prevent contact with live electrical conductors and to provide physical protection for the circuit breaker and its operating mechanism. It is desirable to keep the physical size of the circuit breaker enclosure as small as possible. However, when the circuit breaker interrupts a fault current it produces a large volume of hot gases which are expelled rapidly through vents in the circuit breaker case directly into the circuit breaker enclosure. These gases may be of sufficient volume and force to cause physical damage to the breaker enclosure if the pressure inside the enclosure becomes excessive. The amount of gas produced and the speed and temperature at which it is expelled from the breaker increases proportionally with the magnitude of the fault current interrupted. Under high fault current conditions, the gases can be produced and expelled at such a high speed that a shock wave is produced within the enclosure. The increased pressure produced by this shock wave may be of sufficient strength to rupture the enclosure causing an unsafe operating condition. The arc initiated by the electrical contacts opening on a high fault current can also cause some melting of the electrical contacts and arc quenchers within the breaker case and ignition of the gases may occur. Some small particles of molten metal from the breaker contacts and arc quenchers may be expelled through the vents in the breaker casing along with the burning gases. These small molten metal particles combined with the high volume of hot electrically conductive gases may cause a ground fault or a phase to phase fault of the line conductors within the enclosure. It is common to provide vents in the breaker enclosure to allow the circuit breaker gases to exit and thereby reduce the internal pressure of the enclosure. However, the size and location of these enclosure vents are generally governed by electrical codes and third party certification requirements. These requirements generally specify that access to live parts within the enclosure cannot be obtained through the vent and that no flame or molten metallic particles can exit the enclosure through the vent. To meet these requirements, the vent size and location may be restricted such that breaker gases cannot exit the breaker enclosure at a speed sufficient to prevent damage to the enclosure. It is therefore of great importance that a direct path of adequate size be provided such that the hot conductive gases may exit the breaker enclosure rapidly and safely without causing physical damage to the enclosure. It is also important that this path be electrically insulated such that any molten metal particles are prevented from striking grounded uninsulated metal parts of the enclosure causing a ground fault or from striking live parts causing a phase to phase fault within the enclosure. The path must also be significantly flame retardant such that any flames exiting the breaker case are contained within the path and the enclosure. The path must contain the molten metal particles and flames while at the same time allowing the gas pressure to within the enclosure to be relieved at a rate sufficient to prevent damage to the enclosure.